Disaster Recovery Journal, Fall 2009

ulatory requirements by industry and country, as well as emerging requirements including: NFPA 1600, DRI International’s professional practices, financial services, insurance, healthcare, utilities, public sector guidelines and many others are explored. In addition, careful attention is given to the processes by which disaster/emergency management and business continuity programs are initiated with an eye toward corporate governance, policy, and procedures.

At the end of the course, a new and unique qualifying examination is conducted and individuals who have passed will be eligible to apply for certification as a Certified Business Continuity Auditor (CBCA) or Certified Business Continuity Lead Auditor (CBCLA).

For more information, visit www.drii.org or www.nfpa.org.

COOP System adds Features to Software

HERNDON, Va. — COOP Systems announced several advanced new myCOOP capabilities that were demonstrated at DRJ Fall World on September 13-15 in San Diego.

• Navigation – additional simplicity and power has been added to make the leading ease-of-use in the market even better.

• PDAs – access all dynamically updated content with Blackberry, iPhone and Windows Wireless devices globally.

• Modeling – rapidly assemble and navigate complex dependency views graphically for enhanced BIA and Risk and other analysis.

• Workflow –organize and manage reviews and approvals from end-user to expert to manager to executive.

• Languages – to support our Asian business, myCOOP now supports full Japanese, Chinese and Thai versions for all professional practices features.

For more information, visit www.coop-systems. com.

Verizon Business Expands Global Business Continuity Professional Services

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. — Verizon Business is expanding its already broad portfolio of business continuity professional services to address gaps commonly found in existing continuity programs.

The new consulting services – immediately available in the U.S., as well as countries in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region – focus on business applications, regulatory compliance, training and awareness, and testing. The services are:

• Application Infrastructure Deployment Review – Assessment of current application and infrastructure deployment to determine if the deployment – including the application and operating system, as well as patching, is up to date.

• Business Continuity Compliance – Review of existing business continuity strategy to determine whether it meets compliance requirements; identification of gaps.

• Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Testing Support – Development of strategy and plans for business continuity testing.

• Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Training – Provision of customer training encompassing all

aspects of business continuity and disaster recovery strategies and disciplines.

Verizon Business’ new capabilities – available individually or in multiple-engagement bundles – are ideal for enterprises of all sizes and across all vertical markets, including financial services, health care, retail and manufacturing. To address continuous testing, improvement and training, Verizon Business offers its business continuity professional services on an annual, quarterly or monthly subscription basis.

For more information, visit www.verizonbusi-ness.com.

Forsythe Acquires Paragon Solutions Group

SKOKIE, Ill. — Forsythe Solutions Group Inc., a 38-year old North American IT infrastructure integrator and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Forsythe Technology Inc., announced that it has acquired Paragon Solutions Group Inc., a leading provider of IBM server and storage solutions and IBM Premier Business Partner, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Terms were not disclosed.

As an IT infrastructure integrator, Forsythe is focused on taking care of its clients’ infrastructure solution needs across a variety of technology challenges. This acquisition enhances Forsythe’s ability to provide IBM server and storage products and services.

This transaction is Forsythe’s 6th major acquisition in the last nine years. In 2008, Forsythe acquired the assets of More Group Inc., a leading data storage management integrator in Massachusetts.

With 2008 revenues of $52 million and more than 20 employees, Paragon Solutions Group has grown rapidly since it was founded by president and CEO Haydn Hirstine in 2003.

For more information, visit www.forsythe.com.

Mail-Gard Offers New Crisis Communication, Security Breach Notification Services

WARMINSTER, Penn. — The Mail-Gard division of Transcontinental Direct has announced it is now offering crisis communications support through its new service, Breach-Gard, designed to assist customers with a data security breach or other crisis communications requirements.

Mail-Gard’s Breach-Gard service is an on-line, client-interactive offering that will prepare customers before an event, so that if and when services are needed they can be executed immediately. The service will enable companies to reach their customers through a variety of channels, including mail, e-mail, web and text.

In order for companies to react in a timely manner, it is important that the service be established prior to need. Mail-Gard works with customers to establish three key segments for fast and efficient communications: data, business rules, and message delivery. Mail-Gard’s PCI (Payment Card Industry) certification gives customers peace of mind that data stored in their facility is safe and can be retrieved when needed. Business rules will establish message formats, timing and frequency of communications depending on the type of notification. Finally, message delivery will trigger the appropriate message, capture post-delivery disposition and identify next communication rule.

For more information, visit www.mailgard.com.

TFCC, Strategic BCP Announce Alliance to Deliver Unprecedented BCP Package

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Twenty First Century Communications (TFCC), provider of emergency notification solutions, and Strategic BCP, a business continuity planning company and creator of ResilienceONE software, has announced a strategic alliance to help businesses and organizations worldwide recover quicker after any crisis-related downtime.

Downtime can cost organizations millions of dollars per hour, imperil human life, and result in crippling loss of customers. Strategic BCP’s proprietary Business Continuity Planning (BCP) software, ResilienceONE, facilitates fast decision-making to reduce downtime by making real-time response and recovery information available. TFCC’s CRISCOM notification solution will integrate within ResilienceONE to provide an enhanced inbound and outbound flow of critical information to ResilienceONE to users.

This unprecedented combination of technology will accelerate the real-time status distribution of facilities, information technology, employees, and business operations, and help personnel make more informed, time-sensitive decisions that will ensure safety and mitigate business loss.

For more information, visit www.tfcci.com.

Delhi Stock Exchange teams up with IBM to re-start its operations

BANGALORE, India — IBM has announced that it has signed a 10-year information technology (IT) services agreement with Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE), one of the leading stock exchanges in India. As part of this Rs 11 crore agreement, IBM will provide business continuity and disaster recovery services to DSE as well as remotely host and manage its IT infrastructure. This will help the exchange meet the stringent business continuity guidelines as laid out by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) before it could resume its operations after a hiatus of six years. By engaging with IBM in a complete operational expenditure (pay-as-you-go) model, DSE will also save 100 percent capital expenditure on IT.

Signed in June 2009, this agreement demonstrates IBM’s focus to help clients ‘Do more with Less’ by engaging in an increasingly popular operational expense (opex) model.

DSE was one of country’s largest stock exchanges – almost at par with Bombay Stock Exchange in the 90’s, and has been in existence for over 60 years. In 2002, however, the exchange became inactive due to negligible trading volumes. Seven years later, the exchange is now looking at resurrecting itself to its former glory – one where it used to be bustling with over 2,800 companies listed.

Under this agreement, IBM will build, host and manage the entire disaster recovery infrastructure for DSE from its data center. IBM will also provide 24x7 monitoring services for hardware and networking devices from its command center.